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Writing Workshops

Acclamations, accolades, encomiums, commendations, panegyrics and nice things people say

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Even from as far away as Australia, I could feel the relaxed, open atmosphere he created among us and found it surprisingly easy to get writing. — Alice Allan, Melbourne, Australia I was writing descriptions without events, like jokes without punch-lines. The workshops led me to try more active, engaging and complex storytelling. I gave up some fixed ideas about what kinds of writing I do and...

Refresh your writing spirit and create your best work in 2024!

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Hello friends! It’s Tuscan Writing Workshop time! I’m pleased to announce our long-awaited spring 2024 writing workshop May 11 to 19, 2024, at the Residence Le Santucce in the Tuscan hill town of Castiglion Fiorentino! It’s gonna be great. We will gather to deepen and enrich our writing practice in supportive company with other writers at all levels, from novice to veteran...

The Amherst Writers and Artists Method: Sites, Videos, Practitioners

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Hello everybody, I have been leading Amherst Writers and Artists workshops since 2007. Doing so has changed my creative life in profound and lasting ways. I hope this compendium of links will help you find an Amherst Writers and Artists workshop in your area or online. Maybe after you’ve done it for a while and discovered its benefits, you will decide to lead workshops yourself. The Method...

A look back at our 2019 “Writing is Delicious” Tuscan writing workshop

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We are finally set to have another workshop here in Castiglion Fiorentino at Le Santucce May 11-19, 2024! Meanwhile, this post from our October 2019 food-themed getaway  captures some of the spirit of our Italy-based workshops.   Tuscany in late October means harvest festivals, truffle hunting, wine tasting, long dinners under the stars … and Amherst Writers and Artists workshops! Join...

Increase your creativity. Retrieve rich memories. Write with greater ease. Meet awesome people.

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Come to Castiglion Fiorentino May 12-22, 2022 for TEN! days of writing, thinking, eating, drinking, walking, talking, relaxing, exploring! I’ll be there at beautiful Residence Le Santucce offering daily Amherst Writers and Artists workshops in this charming and ancient Tuscan hill town. Why Italy? Why Le Santucce? My wife, Norma, and I looked long and hard before settling on Residence Le...

Finishing School: The story behind the workshops … and the book

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[Note: This is pretty much a literal transcription of the podcast.]–ct Good morning, or evening, this is Cary Tennis, it’s Thursday, April 29, 2021, and today I’m going to do things slightly differently because this is the story behind the workshops and the book, that is, the Finishing School workshops. So how it really began is like this: In 2004 I was finishing up an article...

I should have been a writer!

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Dear Cary, I remember an afternoon, during my senior year of college, in a tiny hamlet in upstate New York, sitting at my desk, and writing a paper for one of my classes. I do not remember the class, or the subject of the paper. I do remember tip-tap-typing away, focused, with open books lying about on the desk and floor, passages marked with pencil, fluorescent sticky notes protruding from pages...

People Also Ask (A quest story)

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In my Amherst Writers and Artists-style workshops sometimes we write using only one-syllable words. It’s really really fun! So I’m thinking up prompts for this “Writing is Delicious” workshop we’re having in October and thinking about using one-syllable words only to describe food, and … We can’t say the word for how we can just have one of them, because it has...

Online Writing Workshops

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Break barriers and find fresh insights in a safe, relaxed setting Unlock powerful creative ideas and unleash deep emotions in a weekly online workshop led by acclaimed columnist, author and teacher Cary Tennis   Every Sunday online at these times (I will send you the link): USA West Coast 09:00 am USA Mountain Time 10:00 am USA Central Time 11:00 AM USA East Coast Time 12:00 noon London Time...

Here’s how we started doing workshops

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Standing in the living room of the house we’d just renovated at considerable expense, the magnitude of what I’d done, debt-wise, was crashing in and I just thought, This is a beautiful space! People ought to come in here and create in this space! Then began this life-changing endeavor, the workshops. The thing is, it was a dream, it was a gesture of solidarity with other writers, and...

I, too, dislike “craft”

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I just read this Alif Batuman piece in n+1 from a few years back in which I found a kinship reading of “craft.” So let me get something off my chest, counterproductive and humiliating as it may be: Craft is awful. I hate craft!Instead of standing out there in the hot sun polishing and polishing your doomed anachronistic prose beauty why not instead, today! unleash the wild craftless being within...

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